Dear Gardening Members
Welcome to another gardening year.
The CHAPS Committee has put together another really good programme of activities for 2016 which we will hope you will enjoy.
We start our programme on Thursday the 21st of January at Quinnettes with a talk and demonstration on the many uses of Heathers by John Hall of Whitehall Nursery, Headley Down at 8.00pm.
On Thursday the 18th of February Derrick Donnison-Morgan will give a talk on The Flora of the Island of Madeira in the Village Hall at 8.00pm.
Then on Thursday the 17th of March we have a talk on Clematis through the Seasons by Everett Leeds of the International Clematis Society in the Village Hall at 8.00pm. There will be some plants for sale.
We are in the process of developing our own website which you will be able to access independently or through a link from the Churt village website. We would like to include photos of plants and gardens and would ask any member who has some photos of plants from their garden, garden views or wildlife in their garden which they would be happy to share on the website to send them to me at chaps.chairman@gmail.com. We will let you know once the website is ready to use.
At the Autumn Show in September CHAPS will be hosting the Close Brooks Cup, an inter village competition. We would like to put in a good entry ourselves! The classes are listed below and I would encourage all members to see which of these they might be able to help us with by growing a few more than usual to allow for enough produce to enter the normal show classes and have a few good specimens available to CHAPS to call in for our Close Brooks cup entry.
The entry will comprise of a combination of any 6 (maximum 2 fruit items) from the following 17
| ITEM | QTY | CONDITIONS |
| Beetroot | 3 | Any type. Tops trimmed to 75mm (3”). |
| Carrots | 4 | Tops trimmed to 75mm (3”). |
| Cauliflowers | 2 | Stem approx. 50mm (2”). |
| Courgettes | 4 | Length 100-150mm (4-6”). |
| Cucumbers | 2 | Flower still adhering. |
| Lettuce | 2 | Any type. |
| Marrows | 2 | Not large courgettes |
| Onions | 4 | Sets or seed. Trimmed and tied. |
| Potatoes | 4 | Of one variety. |
| Runner Beans | 4 | |
| Shallots | 4 | Culinary or pickling. Trimmed and tied. |
| Tomatoes | 4 | Any one type, Shown with calyx. |
| Apples | 4 | Cooking or dessert. Stalk intact. |
| Grapes | 1 bunch | Indoor or outdoor. |
| Melon | 1 | |
| Pears | 4 | Cooking or dessert. Stalk intact. |
| Plums | 5 | Cooking or dessert. Stalk intact. |
We will be looking for one pot plant, flowering or foliage, pot not to exceed 200mm (8”) diameter. Do you have a pot plant that might be suitable?
And finally we will need to put together two front-facing flower displays. Each may be mixed or of one variety or species. One will be in a vase not to exceed 100mm (4”) at the top, and the other will be in a container not to exceed 200mm (8”) diameter. If you grow flowers for cutting perhaps you may be able to help us with some for these displays.
Our visits this year will be on Wednesday the 18th of May to West Dean Garden and Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. This is an all-day coach trip and we will depart at 9.45am from the Village Hall. We will be selling tickets for this at our talks and the Spring show. The price will be £32.50 to cover the coach hire and entry to both the garden and the museum.
Our afternoon visit will be on Wednesday the 15th of June to Vann Garden, Hambledon, Godalming. Please arrange your own transport for this and aim to arrive at 3.00pm. Entry is £7.00 and includes an introductory talk. As with the day trip we will be selling tickets at the talks and the Spring show as we need to provide firm numbers at the end of May.
Avalon Garden Centre continues to be our sponsor, as well as continuing to offer members a 5% discount on plants. In addition to Avalon and the other outlets who have kindly given CHAPS members discounts over the last several years we have one new providers: The Chocolate Frog in Oakhanger who will give 15% off plants. They will give you a discount card on production of your membership card.
Thank you to all our loyal CHAPS members, without whose support this society would not continue to flourish as it does. 2015 was a really successful year and the Committee members look forward to meeting many of you again throughout 2016.
Happy Gardening.
Maggie Wright